Arab Region Internet Issues PREPARATORY MEETING OF THE ARAB REGION FOR THE WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE Alexandria (Egypt) 17-19 October 2000
Topics •Internet from the top •Commercial opportunities and challenges •Policy and regulatory issues •Mobile Internet
Top level support for Internet “We firmly believe that technology adoption ... is essential to the growth and stability of the Jordanian economy and society.” —King Abdullah II of Jordan
Syria is planning to expand access to the Internet and wants it to be available to every household in the country. —President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
Challenge: Translate top-level vision to concrete action
Commercial opportunities and challenges • Opportunities
–Dial-up traffic –Leased lines –Other Internet services
• Challenges –Transition to IP-based network –IP telephony
Internet dial-up Telephone traffic in Sweden, Millions of minutes 6'000
Internet dial-up
5'000
International calls
4'000
Internet as % of total traffic
3'000 2'000
12.5%
1999 revenue: US$ 235 m +25%
7.3%
3.3% 0.4%
1'000 0 1996
1997
1998
1999
US$ 258 m -11%
Transition in Singapore • Access – – – –
SingNet SingTel Magix mysingtel e-ideas
Singapore Telecom Share of revenue (%) 45
43
41
38 34
International
• Infrastructure – – – –
NCS Media Hub Consumer Connect SingTel IX ID.Safe
15 10
10
95
96
18
22
Data
• Content – Lycos Asia – SESAMi.com
97
98
Source: Singapore Telecom.
99
The Internet Way • Technical, financial & social challenge to circuit switched international telephone traffic • Anyone can be a telco – So isn’t that good for universal access?
IP Telephony: Threat or opportunity? • “I think that’s the best way to do it. If you can’t beat them, join them.” —Egypt Minister of Communications and IT • “Offering Net2Phone's services to our customers demonstrates our ability to provide … low-cost telecommunications … utilizing the utmost in high technology." — OmanTel
Source: The Economist, May 2nd 1998
Networks Must Converge “… evolving Swisscom’s fixed-line networks away from the current circuitswitched infrastructure toward a packet-based infrastructure ... The core of the infrastructure of this next generation network will be based on IP technology.”
Policy and Regulatory issues
•Pricing •Content •Domain name •ISP market •Internet Telephony •Universal access
Pricing Internet access prices, 30 hours per month, US$, Sep. 2000 $120
Telephone
$100
ISP
$80 $60 $40 $20
Free local calls? Free Internet access?
UAE
AOL (USA)
Morocco
Tunisia
Lebanon
Oman
Qatar
Arab Avg.
Jordan
Bahrain
KSA
$0
Nation-wide Internet dialling?
Content • Few Arab governments active in developing local content • Most users know English 885
Population % Online
332 322
189 182 175 170 170
125 98 6% 54% 2% 0% 2% 1% 5% 4% 20% 22% M an da r S p in an is En h gl is Be h ng al i H in d Ar i Po a b rtu ic gu e R se us Ja sian pa ne s G e er m an
• Many Arab countries restrict access to content • Promote ‘family’ access plans • Work with industry and community
885 Population Population % Online Online %
332 322
189 182 175 170 170
125 98
M an da Sp rin an i En sh gl is Be h ng al H i in A di Po rab r tu ic gu R ese us Ja si a pa n ne G se er m an
2% 6% 54% 0% 2% 1% 5% 4% 20% 22%
Domains Country
Registrar
Oman (.om) Libya (.ly) Jordan (.jo) UAE (.ae) USA (.com) Leb. (.lb) Saudi Arabia (.sa)
OmanTel Alshaeen company NIC ETISALAT Network Solutions American University KACST
Fee (US$) 100 100 70 70 40 0 0
ISP policy • How many? – Number of ISPs does not necessarily equate to high Internet access
• How much? – License fees, other fees
• How to? – Can ISPs provide own domestic and international infrastructure? – National and international connectivity issues
Number of ISPs MAR EGY SAU LBN DZA JOR TUN KWT YEM SYR QAT OMN BHR ARE
0
1 2
10
70
RECOMMENDATION D.50
International Internet connection (Montreal, 2000) recommends that administrations involved in the provision of international Internet connections negotiate and agree to bilateral commercial arrangements enabling direct international Internet connections that take into account the possible need for compensation between them for the value of elements such as traffic flow, number of routes, geographical coverage and cost of international transmission amongst others.
Digital divide in the Arab region Internet users as % of population 8%
17%
7% 6%
All developing countries
5% 4% 3% 2% 1%
SD N
D ZA
M CO
LB Y
R A M
B RA A
TU N
U SA
T Q A
KW T
U A
E
0%
Universal access • Many cannot afford individual access to Internet • Providing public access to Internet via community centres, cyber cafes, schools, etc. • Tunisia PubLIC INTERnet (Publinet) – 50% of investment cost met by government; rest from low interest loans – > 100
Source: ATI (www.ati.tn)
Mobile Internet
• Mobile emerging as viable platform to access Internet • 2G: SMS, WAP, GPRS • 3G: To launch next year
Arab region Millions
3.9
2.6
Personal Computers
Mobile Phones
Mobile browser or mobile dial-up?
Wireless web access i-mode in Japan from Palm Pilot Singapore
Strategies
• Transition to IP-based network • Understanding IP Telephony • Internet application development • Regulatory & policy advice • Comparative experience (case study) • Universal access models